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A New Year’s resolution to know more, drive safer

Happy New Year from all of us at MyCarDoesWhat.org. We’re excited about 2018 for a number of reasons, including upgrades to our website (in the works!) and continued advancements in vehicle safety technology. It’s amazing to consider the safety features in today’s vehicles compared with just a few years ago.

Many of us make individual New Year’s resolutions. Some want to lose weight, others want to gain a skill. Maybe you want to travel the world, take up volunteering or spend more time with nature.

Can we suggest a group resolution for all of us in 2018? Know more, drive safer.

That’s our philosophy at MyCarDoesWhat.org. The more you know about the safety features in your vehicle, the more you can benefit from them. Maybe that blind-spot monitor prevents what would have been a crash. Or maybe you get home safely tomorrow because your vehicle had lane departure warning.

The new year provides a chance for all of us to be safer on the roads. Despite significant improvements in technology, traffic fatalities have not diminished. The National Safety Council estimates that as many as 40,000 people were killed on the roads in 2016 (the most recent year for which data is available). That marks a 6 percent increase over 2015 and a 14 percent increase over 2014, the largest two-year jump in 53 years. Clearly, these numbers are going in the wrong direction.

To reverse this tragic trend, we all can do more. Learn about the safety technologies in your vehicle, and share that knowledge with your loved ones. Avoid distractions. Take your time. Never, ever drink and drive.

Another important point to remember is that you are your vehicle’s best safety feature. Safety technologies assist the driver in so many ways, but they do not replace the driver. Stay alert at all times behind the wheel.

As we enter 2018, we cannot shrug our shoulders at more than 100 fatalities every single day on our roads.

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Ten years ago, nearly zero vehicles featured automatic emergency braking. It was a nice concept, to be sure. Imagine your vehicle being able to scan the road ahead of you, detect imminent hazards and slow or stop on its own if you failed to react in time. But how soon could the game-changing technology actually […]